Tag: Laura Purdie Salas

My #NaPoWriMo Poem-A-Day project is Playing With Poetry. I am tagging along with Margaret Simon, Jone MacCulloch, Molly Hogan, and Mary Lee Hahn. We will be playing with Haikubes, Magnetic Poetry, Metaphor Dice, and Paint Chip Poetry (I raided Home Depot). I’m even throwing in nail polish color names as inspiration, just for fun! Play along, if you’d like! We are using the Twitter hashtag #playwithpoetryNPM to see what poetic mischief everyone is getting into.

wood frog eggs + warm weather = backstroke

A peek into my poem and process:

Today’s poem is an equation poem. We’ve been enjoying Laura Purdie Salas’ new book, Snowman – Cold = Puddle: Spring Equations in our classroom this spring. We’ve even been trying our hand at our own equation poems. You can read more about Laura, her book, and this fun form here. (P.S. I’m excited to present at NCTE in Baltimore with Laura at a Wonderopolis-sponsored poetry roundtable! I hope you’ll come and see us!)

Last week we were on April Vacation. Our biologist-in-residence delayed giving us the wood frog eggs we are to head-start in our classroom, because she didn’t want them to hatch while we were away. She kept them in a safe trap in the vernal pool on our campus until we returned.

Last night our science coordinator sent us an UH-OH email saying it was so warm last week and over the weekend, that the eggs hatched! Our poor biologist had to gather up tadpoles from the vernal pool in her gorgeous hip waders. That must have been like herding cats! The subject line in the email read: “Warm Weather Plus Wood Frog Eggs Equals…” I couldn’t resist using it in an equation poem!

Happy Poetry Friday, all! Poetess and author Laura Purdie Salas is hosting this week’s gathering on her blog, Writing the World for Kids. Won’t you join us there?

Related to her new book, Snowman – Cold = Puddle: Spring Equations, Laura has a fun, quick writing challenge for us this week: write an equation poem. What fun! She’s even set up a Padlet to collect them. My class’ participation in Global School Play Day 2019 on Wednesday inspired my offering.

On Tuesday morning, the most magnificent rainbow appeared in the sky just as families in cars and buses filled with excited children were making their way to school. Cars pulled over, parents and staff snapped pictures as children squealed with joy. What a way to start another day of learning and growing together!

With this image still vivid in my memory, I scrambled for pen and paper when my students were safely delivered to PE class. I scribbled down words, thoughts, and feelings that came to mind, knowing that there was a poem amongst those faded pastel hues. Later that day, I curled up with a cup of tea and my scribbles. Wondering what more I might add to my ideas, I searched Wonderopolis (a great source for poetic inspiration) for a wonder about rainbows. I found Wonder of the Day #116: Why Do Rainbows Appear? and mined a few more descriptors and facts from the text. After some gentle nudges, a rainbow appeared.

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Thanks for wondering and wandering a bit with me today. I hope you’ll join us on this Poetry Friday by posting a bit of poetry — your’s or someone else’s — and leaving a comment here or there. Thank you for hosting, Laura!